Omar Khadr: Victim of US and Canadian Injustice

Omar Khadr: Victim of US and Canadian
Injustice

The gross, unspeakable injustices to which Canadian
citizen Omar Khadr has been subjected, by both the
United States and his own government, are far beyond
appalling. Arrested at the age of 15, and accused by the
U.S. of killing a U.S. soldier, Mr. Khadr spent ten
years in the U.S’s. Cuban-based torture center at
Guantanamo. International law categorizes any ‘soldier’
under the age of 18 as a ‘child soldier’, who cannot be
charged with a war-related crime. Both the U.S. and
Canada chose not to adhere to international law.

At the time of his capture, the teenage Mr. Khadr
sustained extremely serious injuries, including two
gunshot wounds through his chest, multiple broken bones,
and shrapnel splattered all over his body, costing him
the sight in one eye. Yet his immediate medical
treatment was lacking.

Once he regained consciousness about a week following
his capture, he was detained at the Bagram air base,
where he was tortured. This torture included the
following:

* Being tied to a fence with his hands tied high
above his head; due to his injuries, raising his hands
at all was extremely painful;
* Being tied up with a bag secured tightly around his
head, making breathing difficult, as attack dogs
snarled and growled at him from inches away;
* Having cold water thrown over him;
* Forcing him, despite of, or perhaps because of, his
injuries, to pile heavy water bottles together. Once
he finished the task, his torturers knocked over the
pile, and forced him to re-pile them.

Once transferred to Guantanamo, the torture only
continued. One such method, as reported by Vox, is
referred to as ‘the mop incident’. It is documented as
follows: Guards “pulled his arms and legs behind in a
‘bow’ position, until his limbs strained painfully at
their sockets. This was known in the
officially-sanctioned American torture guides as a
‘stress position,’ and victims often pass out from the
pain. Over several hours, the guards contorted Omar into
different stress positions, each time shoving him into a
painful position on the ground. Eventually, inevitably,
he urinated himself. MPs returned, mocked him for a
while and then poured pine-oil solvent all over his
body. Without altering his chains, they began dragging
him by his feet through the mixture of urine and pine
oil. Because his body had been so tightened, the new
motion racked it. The MPs swung him around and around,
the piss and solvent washing up into his face. The idea
was to use him as a human mop. When the MPs felt they’d
successfully pretended to soak up the liquid with his
body, they uncuffed him and carried him back to his
cell. He was not allowed a change of clothes for two
days.”[1]

After a time, Canadians came to visit Mr. Khadr, and
this initially brought him hope; finally, someone from
his own country was going to help him. But that was not
their goal, although viewing the films of that
interrogation certainly indicated that the CSIS
(Canadian Security Intelligence Services) agents wanted
him to think they were there to assist. But their
motivation was only to help the U.S. build its case
against him.

All this is horrific, and was condoned by two,
supposedly-respected governments. First is the United
States. The U.S. was bombing Afghanistan, a sovereign
nation where it had no business being. The treatment
that Mr. Khadr experienced at the hands of his U.S.
captors is defined as torture by any definition, no
matter how liberal one wishes to be with the word. He
was only 15 years old; even one of the torturers at
Bagram, Damien M. Corsetti, known as the ‘Monster’ and
the ‘King of Torture’, later said this of Mr. Khadr. “He
was a 15-year-old kid with three holes in his body, a
bunch of shrapnel in his face. That was what I remember.
How horrible this 15-year-old child looked.” Further, he
described Mr. Khadr as an injured “child” detained in
“one of the worst places on Earth.”

Yet the U.S. government saw him differently. Initial
requests for information about Mr. Khadr’s
incarceration, from the Director General of the Canadian
Consular Affairs office, were not responded to. In a
meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powel, a
representative of the Consular Affairs office asked if
Mr. Khadr was being well-treated; if he would have
proper legal representation; if his status as a minor,
as covered by the international conventions dealing with
youths was recognized, and when Canadian officials would
be able to have access to him. Mr. Powell’s response was
that Mr. Khadr had killed a ‘fine young American’ and
would be treated with the U.S. justice system.
Apparently, Mr. Powell had determined that, without
charge or trial, Mr. Khadr was guilty, and the U.S.
‘justice system’ would now administer the penalty in one
of its foreign torture chambers.

Such behaviour is to be expected from the U.S.
government, for which the rule of law is something only
to be adhered to at its own convenience. Yet Canada,
even under the government of Liberal Jean Chretien, did
nothing to assist a Canadian citizen being tortured by a
foreign government. Never did the government, under Mr.
Chretien or his successor, Stephen Harper, request that
this Canadian citizen, arrested as a child in violation
of international law, be repatriated. Under Mr. Harper,
the government even attempted to have Mr. Khadr’s bail
revoked, and it is hoped that one of the new Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau’s first acts will be to drop
that action, enabling Mr. Khadr to continue to live
freely in Canada, and move on with his life.

In January of 2010, Supreme Court of Canada ruled that
Mr. Khadr’s rights had been violated when he was
interrogated by CSIS at Guantanamo in February of 2003.
This was the most that the Canadian government ever did
for him.

Journalist Andrew O’Hehir made this comment about
Canada’s ignoring of Omar Khadr: “Khadr became a sort of
ritual sacrifice by the Canadian government, an offering
to its American allies and/or overlords.”

And it seems that that is what it was. With the wounds
of the September 11 attacks on the U.S. kept fresh by an
oil-lusting government, and no politician on either side
of the border wanting to appear weak on terrorism, Mr.
Khadr became a sacrificial lamb, placed on the altar to
show Canada’s support for the U.S.

There is no hope for any change in the United States.
Rampant jingoism is the song being played by every major
candidate for president, and it is music to the ears of
the public. In Canada, where the disgraceful Stephen
Harper has been defeated by the apparently (this remains
to be seen) less disgraceful Justin Trudeau, there may
be a glimmer of hope. But when the rule of law can be so
easily discarded for political expediency, hope becomes
an elusive concept.

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DARCY D= YOU MUST BELIEVE.STANDING UP FOR THE INNOCENT C.E.O
The United Kingdom resident champions causes of the voiceless, the powerless and the weak, particularly in North America. She campaigns for petitions on behalf of incarcerated human trafficking.